


We Are Dragons!

by Maekki



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-13 20:31:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7136003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maekki/pseuds/Maekki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Tiny Dragons are a bandit gang known mostly as harmless petty thieves with a strange religious fanaticism: a family of outcast kobolds, five clutchmates, lead by a mighty dragon who appears to exist only in their dreams.  They're pursued mainly by Marta Brightaxe, a dwarven cop, and her elemental bodyguard.</p>
<p>Set in an original plane/universe, and with small appearances by canon characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Charik sat in the usual place, the tip of the spire in which they lived, Intet's Claw. At least, that's what the clutch called it. Friksus had told them all they couldnt find any name for it, so they took it upon themself to name it. Being the only one who could speak more languages, the others had simply trusted Friksus was right. Of course Charik did ultimately believe it, but at times like this they couldn't help but wonder.

  
The spire itself was the perfect home, so much that Laththyss often claimed it must have been meant for them to find. It was just high enough above the spires around it to be seen from a distance, just far enough away to prevent bridges being built to it, and just barren enough that few people could live on it comfortably. Yet, it was not extreme enough to draw attention in any way. A spire almost twice as tall was visible just on the horizon, and several other standout islands could be found all around. The only unique feature was its shape: when looked at from the nearest spire, it looked just like a reptilian claw, pointing to the sky. The perfect home for a small family of kobolds in hiding to lay claim to.

  
Charik's clutchmates rarely came up this far, so they were caught off guard when a yip rang out nearby. Charik yipped in reply without thinking, before realizing it was a call for help. Hopefully they hadn't given themself away, if there was an enemy nearby. They quickly drew two pistols from their belt while running headlong toward the call, as fast as they could go without making noise. Leaping over a scrubby bush their usual path ran under, they got a quick glimpse of the situation. Friksus or Makkeva, they couldn't be sure which from that glance, on the shelf in the cliff ahead, was cowering under what looked like a huge blue bird. A kite, most likely, but it seemed bigger than the ones that usually appeared in this area. Nothing worth yelling over, unless it was the soft-bellied Friksus, but perhaps there was an entire flock around?

  
Charik risked yelling once more, stopping just on the other side of a large rock on the edge of the shelf. "How many?"

  
"Just one!" The voice was definitely Makkeva's, unexpectedly.

  
Charik leapt across the path and pressed their back against the cliff wall on the other side. They didn't see exactly where Makkeva was, so they shot high with both hands, assuming Makkeva would be trying to tangle up its feet. It whipped one head around, which lunged just short of Charik, roaring like no bird ever could.

  
"Holy crap, that's a drake!" they yelled. In reply, Makkeva only laughed.

  
Charik quickly scurried back a couple steps along the cliff. The drake didn't look like it would be moving, not with a kobold twisting its other neck around one of its legs, but it didn't hurt to get a bit more distance. They pulled back the bolt on each gun with the claws of their wings, while inspecting the area they'd shot at. It was too dark to see if the shots had had any effect, but Charik decided to wait for an opportunity to hit a scaleless target, just in case. They were about to move closer, to bait it into snapping at them again, when suddenly the drake pitched forward and away, as Makkeva managed to pull its wing on the opposite side in. The wing on the close side stretched up, and Charik took aim at the soft pit under it.

  
The first bullet went wide, under the wing, and put a hole through the drake's back fin. The second shot was dead on, sinking into the squishier flesh of its chest. The head Mekkava held onto struggled to get air, its lung punctured by the shot. Seeing that, Mekkava let go of both the wing and neck they were holding, and wrapped both arms around the base of the other neck, their legs still holding onto one of the drake's. The corresponding head dove back toward Mekkava, but Charik jumped past it and put themself in the way, pushing a leather-clad arm with a wooden buckler strapped to it into the beast's mouth. Four large lower fangs slowly sank through leather and into the flesh on the inside of their forearm, before the drake ran out of air and fell unconscious.

  
"What should we do with this?" Charik asked. "I dont think it can survive if we leave it."

  
Mekkava pulled themself out from under the fallen creature. "Want to drag it to Sarys?"

 

Charik swished their tail a bit in approval, and reached down around the base of one neck. Mekkava did the same on the other side.

 

"Drakes are just animals, right?" Charik asked, worried, after a couple minutes of walking. They would reach the upper entrance of their tunnel system in a couple more.

  
"I'm pretty sure they are." Makevva answered. "Sarys will know."

  
"Sarys will know what?" A third voice asked, followed by a red-scaled head popping up out of the cave ahead. Laththyss yipped in surprise as they caught sight of the drake.

  
"Come help us." Makevva said, dropping their hold and stretching their bleeding back. Laththyss summoned a flame in their hand, warding off the surrounding dusk so the other two could finally inspect their wounds. Makevva had about five separate bite marks, bright red among their dark purple scales. Charik pulled off one sleeve of their armour, revealing slight cuts, barely even bleeding, where the drake had bit them. They quickly pulled the leather back into place, pointedly acting as if they hadn't even worried.

  
"So, what were you coming up there for, anyway?" Charik asked Mekkava.

  
"Oh, right, I totally forgot." Mekkava's tail twitched a bit. "Friksus wants your opinion on their latest dream."

  
Charik swished their tail in a questioning gesture, which Mekkava mirrored back.

  
"If she needed me, wouldn't she just come to me?"

  
"Maybe she can't?" Laththyss called from the back of the drake, where they were lifting from the base of its tail.

  
"She has before." Makkeva looked at Charik pointedly, so they added, "Nothing important, just trying to impress me I guess, prove that she does exist? Friksus must have told her they didn't think I believed, or whatever."

  
"Do you?" Laththyss asked.

  
"Of course, I always did. Friksus said it."


	2. Chapter 2

The inn at the entrance to the Spires was busier than usual, crystalline bodies packed shoulder-to-shoulder around tables in the tavern. The one exception was a bench in one corner, where a sweaty dwarf sat, barely clothed and fanning herself with a folded-up piece of paper. Two glix, humanoid amalgamations of small rocks slowly churning under translucent crystal exoskeletons, sat on the opposite bench, talking amongst themselves while very pointedly avoiding her gaze. She was Marta, well known around the area for making trouble for anyone who bothered her.  


Another glix, Brookite, came up and sat beside her, placing an armful of mugs, overflowing with suds, onto the table. He was a bit shorter than the average glix, but still a bit taller than the dwarf. His plating was striped white and grey, with mostly orange-brown innards, and spilt liquid on his chest was visibly flowing through the pores of it slowly.  


"Hot?" his voice crackled from somewhere deep inside his head. Two reddish and one larger blackish rock emerged from inside, forming a makeshift face on the front of his head. It was purely decorative, meant to make the dwarf more comfortable speaking to him. She'd never had the heart to tell him it was actually a bit more unnerving than when he was faceless.  


"It's not too bad." Marta grabbed the nearest of the five mugs and drank deeply, finishing off the first mug in one draw before she spoke again. "You find anything today?" She put the empty mug with the pile she'd already collected that night, about a dozen so far.  


"A few travelers saw them over by the Black Spine, four days ago." He picked up a mug himself, and held its top against his chest. Its contents slowly started soaking in. "But I heard of no thefts in the area. The descriptions were accurate, though: dark blue one giving a speech, red wingless one with four arms, and a purple one. No direct sightings of the others, as expected."  


Marta simply grunted an acknowledgement and started drinking another, this time taking it slowly.  


"This is the third time we have seen them in that area with no related activity." Brookite continued.  


"Sure is."  


"Are we going to check it out?"  


"No."  


"Do you want to explain that to me?"  


"No point. They're long gone by now. The only way we'll get them is by waiting around somewhere we know they'll appear."  


"So are we just going to wait around here, getting drunk and staring at the people who cross the bridge every day?" The glix slammed a half-empty mug on the table. "I am going to check it out."  


"Then you're just gonna go out there and, what, track them through the wilderness, based on what? Vague descriptions of where they were a cycle ago?" Marta yelled at his back as he walked out. She sat down heavily and muttered into the mug he'd left behind. "Have fun with that, idiot."

  


Half an hour later, Marta burst into their shared room upstairs. "Did you pack my stuff?"  


Brookite gestured to the bed on her side of the room, where a set of clothing was set out next to a bulging backpack.  


Marta started undressing, fumbling slightly with the straps and buttons. "Our room is paid up 'til Black Night, and I've bought supplies and rented a cart for six cycles from your Vein. They want you to pick it up, I'll meet you there."  


As soon as the glix was out of the room, Marta opened up the closet door, which had a large mirror on the inside. She checked out her clean outfit, matching pants and tunic in a dark green that made her green eyes look bright and piercing. About half her clothes were that exact shade, and Brookite had packed most of them for her. She quickly brushed out and rebraided her long black hair and beard, a task she could perform expertly even at her drunkest. Finally, she grabbed a brand new black cloak out of the closet, unwrapping it from the layers of brown paper it was packaged in. She pulled it on and shoved the old one, a thinning old brown thing that was hanging off the nearest post of her bed, into her bag.  


When she was satisfied she'd gotten everything, Marta pulled a keyring out of the pocket of the shorts on the bed, which she'd just taken off. The dwarf quickly circled around her half of the room, double checking the lock on the room's shared closet, which she'd completely taken over for herself, as well as the locks on various footlockers and trunks around the room, the last of which she pulled over to the door. Finally, she put on the backpack that was on her bed, and wrapped up the sweaty clothes she'd been wearing all evening, and most likely two or three other times since they were last washed, in the sheets from her bed.  


As she left, the room behind her looked practically unlived in, aside from her storage containers sticking out from behind the closet and under the bed. She grabbed the leather trunk she'd put aside and set off.


End file.
